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Here’s a recap of the Farscape panel as well as a few photos from Mega Con. The photos are not great since they requested no flash photography after the first minute or two and the room was very dark.

Gigi Edgley, Virginia Hey, Wayne Pygram, and David Franklin were all in attendance and like every other actor, they’ve all moved to LA.

When asked what they’ve been up to…

Gigi was recently nominated for I guess some fairly prestigious award in Australia for Last Train to Freo . She’s also filmed something with Debra Messing and is headed back to Australia to do two films. The one she seemed enthused about has her playing a woman with cerebral palsy.

Virginia is not currently looking into getting back into acting. She’s working as a designer of fragrances. It goes along with her candle line. She says she’s getting raves for the unique scents she’s developed and has a request for one from Elle McPherson.

David recently filmed three episodes of ‘The Young and the Restless’ and two commercials in Australia. I knew he had been ill a few years ago, I’m not sure from what, but he mentioned that he’s had to have several surgeries and it has left him with a speech impediment. He also seemed to struggle to finish his thoughts and come up with the right words a few times. He actually looked a little frustrated.

Wayne has just moved to LA and has nothing lined up. He’s been fishing.

There was a question about if they had always planned to be an actor and how they got into acting...

Gigi basically has always liked to dress up and pretend. She studied ballet as a child (no surprise if you see how tiny she is).

Virginia comes from a family of artists and planned to follow in their footsteps. While she was waiting for a bus or something on the street she was discovered by an agent who asked her if she’d be interested in modeling. She said no, repeatedly, until the woman said she could make $60 a day – about $600 a day in the current market – and she said yes. That led to her doing 57 commercials. Then she was offered the role in ‘The Road Warrior’. Again, she said no, about five times. Finally, she relented and fell in love with acting.

A separate question addressed her being in a possible forth installment of the ‘Mad Max’ franchise and she said she’d loved too (even though her character died). She even confessed that she wrote Mel Gibson asking if there might be a part for her.

David’s aunt was an actress on a very successful show in Australia, ‘The Sullivans’, so he was always around the profession. When he was 15 he wrote a letter to the head of ABC (Australia’s ABC) and asked them to hire him. (Here Virginia interjects with ‘See, he’s always been pushy!’) Turns out the network was doing some biopic and he looked like a younger version of the actor they wanted to hire the older version.

Wayne wanted to be a rugby player, was studying to be a teacher (though he knew that wasn’t going to work out), and was playing drums at a local theatre. Someone there thought he was right for a part and asked him to audition.

The question about makeup came up. Gigi talked about how it originally took about three and a half hours to do her makeup and after two years of begging them to hire a second makeup artist for her they relented. They said it would only shave an hour off the time and she pointed out that, yes, and she could sleep or learn her lines or wash her panties. There was a joke earlier about her panties and David joking that she doesn’t wear any. Then there was a joke about David’s makeup only taking four minutes, but Virginia countered with it took him hours to stuff that sock down his pants.

Someone had asked about the crazier episodes of ‘Farscape’. Gigi admitted to prior to the Con she did a marathon viewing of the entire series and mentioned “Chrichton Kicks’ as a favorite.

There was discussion, rather lengthy, about the end of the series. Wayne felt that ‘Peacekeeper Wars’ became more of a traditional TV show and fell flat. Gigi commented that they had received a beautiful script, but because of the tight budget and a short shooting schedule a lot of plot lines needed to be cut. She sited the story about Chiana’s new eyes specifically. They just trimmed a few things here and there, but it ended up making a dramatic difference.

Both Gigi and Wayne talked about how when they came back there just wasn’t the same family feeling present. Not that they didn’t get along, but they had grown so close, then they were suddenly out of each others lives, then suddenly back together again. Gigi mentioned she had found out that PK Wars was a go from a fan at a Con.

David talked about a photo shoot they had to do after news of the cancellation broke and how uncomfortable it was because none of them were talking about it and there was this pink elephant in the room.

The Save Farscape campaign came up. Someone asked about ‘Farscape’ perhaps coming back with a direct to DVD film or something online. Wayne said that there was talk of a feature, but that’s passed and he hasn’t heard anything in years. Gigi said she had heard that David Kemper was working on a spin-off. Interestingly, part of the problem with any future ‘Farscape’ project is ownership. Turns out that while Brian Henson owns the original characters, David Kemper owns Scorpius since he came up with him and he wasn’t present from the beginning.

They were asked about how much input they had in the development of their characters. Gigi said that Chiana’s movements had to do with a combination of not being able to move in the costume or see in the contacts.

Wayne said the cooling rods came about because of a discussion between him and Kemper.

Harvey was only suppose to be around for one episode. Wayne’s Hawaiian shirt lead someone to ask how much he had to do with the development of the character. He said that Scorpy’s shirt was literally the shirt off of Richard Manning’s back.

Wayne, no surprise, didn’t agree with some of the developments for Scorpy. The one that really bothered him was Scorpy having sex with the character whose name escapes me. It seemed like a too human thing for him to be doing. They had to reshoot the scene several times because what he first did they said they could never get on the air so then we got a more traditional sex scene.

Just like at Dragon*Con, Pilot was brought up and how he seemed so real to them and how sad it was to see him lifeless and alone on stage.

Gigi and the others chimed in to thank the fans and she admitted that they and these Con’s have kept them afloat the past few years.

And a few photos…

They'll probably be one more post with some con odds and ends and my trip to M&M World! :)

Wayne, no surprise, didn’t agree with some of the developments for Scorpy. The one that really bothered him was Scorpy having sex with the character whose name escapes me. It seemed like a too human thing for him to be doing. They had to reshoot the scene several times because what he first did they said they could never get on the air so then we got a more traditional sex scene.

SIKOZU! God...Sikozu of course...I love her and Sikozu/Scorp was a stroke of brilliance! Scorp is HALF Sebacean (which is equal to human ;)...I loved that they showed he has emotions...made the character even more interesting...and I still am sure that Sikozu and Scorp did love each other. Oh what I would give for a sequel to farscape and peacekeeper wars!

I have heard Wayne's opinion about before! He just can't stand that Scorpius has feelings, too!

Then he meant Natira (from the Three-parter Liars Guns and Money in season 2)! But she didn't really make Scorpius look softer! Okay they had sex, but it was rather more frigthening to watch than anything that would soften him in the eyes of the audience haha...!

It was Sikozu who made him look totally different over the course of season 4 and the miniseries! And they even got together as a couple *sigh*!

I'm sorry, you don't know me, and I never actively use Livejournal anymore, but I'm a friend of bloneheroine's and I thought you might find it interesting that my friend Tony was the moderator of the panel, having been asked to do it about twenty minutes before it started, but who got to hang out with the cast a little bit before and after.

Gah! I love the character of Scorpius and never had a problem with his sleeping with either Sikozu OR Natira, but I am mad that he dares to say this:

Wayne felt that ‘Peacekeeper Wars’ became more of a traditional TV show and fell flat.

After HE WAS ONE OF THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE!

As in, the whole nonsensical, two-dimensional, outta-nowhere “reveal” that Sikozu was the spy all along in Peacekeeper Wars came pretty much entirely from Wayne Pygram’s objection to Scorpius non being a traditional enough villain; he wanted to be meaner and stuff and not be in any kind of humanising relationship (even though his selfless ambiguity and not evil motivations were what made him such a great character!). Fair enough; but they did it at the expense of Sikozu’s character and her continuity and IT MADE NO FRELLING SENSE!

Nope, you're not bitter. ;) Thanks for the info. As much as I was a fan of the show, I was never really in the fandom so I missed a lot of the behind the scenes stuff and it's good to hear. :) I agree, Sikozu's betrayal was a WTF?

oh! how cool! and great pics! i always get a little weirded out whenever i see the actors looking like themselves. i'm so used to them being blue and grey and black and whatnot. silly, i know.

i've seen every single episode of the show, but i only saw the last half our or so of PK Wars. and it did seem a little different than the show. while i'd LOVE to see more of farscape, i can't help wondering whether it'd feel the same. probably not, and i'd just end up being dissapointed. :)

thank you for the report and the pics! no one else on my f-list talke about this panel. :)

There weren't that many at the panel! It was in a tiny room way off the beaten path and the time had been switched and I know I spoke to people on Saturday and Sunday who were bummed to have missed it.

Wayne has just moved to LA and has nothing lined up. He’s been fishing.He's been fishing in LA? Hmmm. That's actually rather scary. ;) And I loved "Peacekeeper War" as well as Scorpy's man-ho escapades. Without that "humanization" of Scorpy he would have been a very simplistic and stereotypical villain.

Gigi and the others chimed in to thank the fans and she admitted that they and these Con’s have kept them afloat the past few years.Aww, that's rather sad to hear, but I guess it's a painful reality in that business.

At first I thought the fishing was a joke, but then he didn't laugh sooo.....

I use to think doing cons was rather sad and I suppose it is if you get no one coming up to your table, but having seen the lines for Jamie, Mary, Sean Astin and Kevin Sorbo, you can make quite a bit of money for eight or nine hours work. And the fact that working actors are doing these quite regularly now I think it's elevating the whole experience.